


Reboot

by dragonsong (NekoAisu)



Series: FFXIV Write 2019 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dreams, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers Spoilers, Gender-Neutral Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Other, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers, Patch 5.0: Shadowbringers Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 22:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20571899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoAisu/pseuds/dragonsong
Summary: And they reach for him with hands he cannot see save for the shifting of the cosmos, holding him so gently it feels like home, and send him back to the waking world. G'raha never wants to leave their embrace.





	Reboot

**Author's Note:**

> For FFXIVWrite 2019!
> 
> Day 6 | First Steps
> 
> Tumblr post here: https://ffxivimagines.tumblr.com/post/187559408859/ffxivwrite-2019-prompt-6-reboot

Watching the doors close, G’raha Tia feels he made the right choice in sealing himself inside the Crystal Tower. It’ll be lonely to sleep for what he knows will be centuries on end. Least of all, without the Warrior he’s grown so fond of having at his side. 

He turns from the flickering blue of runic engravings of the doors to head further inward and heaves a shuddering sigh. The aether of the Tower dims and slows behind him, shutting down in preparation for the hibernation of its master. He hopes it won’t be too long until he is freed from his self-imposed prison. It was his choice, yes, but not one he made easily. Eorzea is not ready for the Allagan technology kept inside the halls he now roams. He needed to protect it, protect the Warrior from it, and keep the warring needs inside him far from their eyes. 

He wants them by his side acutely. Before Unei and Doga had entrusted him with their legacy─and, in turn, the legacy of the Allagan Empire─he had simply thought it to be a want for friendship. Their companionship was manic and a little confusing at times, but they were genuine enough that G’raha found himself soothed by their presence. 

Now, he takes in the majesty of shimmering facets of crystal and gilding with dulled wonder. He remembers how they’d chattered on about how frustrating it would be to renovate a tower this big, or how they want to know if crystals can go bad like plaster. They’d taken the time to be awed, but they’d been far more interested in grilling him for information and poking dangerous inventions. It’s quiet without them and he comforts himself with the thought that, once he’s freed and the world is ready for the true might of Allagan technology, he’ll hear naught but song and story about their deeds. 

He wanders for a while, humming a half-hearted ditty under his breath that exaggerates their deeds to the extremes just for the fun of it, until he finds a place suitable enough for a nap. Ensconced on all sides by smooth, pulsing crystal, G’raha Tia allows himself to sleep. He does not wake for many a year, passing centuries alone inside a dream, until he is not and the world is falling down around his ears. He tries so hard to save them, to beg Hydaelyn for a chance to see them reborn as her Champion once more, but all he gets are dreams of them holding him so gently as if he would be the one to shatter if they so much as looked too hard at him. 

They ask him with a voice made of stars, “My precious Raha, why do you hate yourself so?”

He can’t force words out from where they’re stuck behind the lump in his throat. He buries his face in his hands, wishing the creep of crystal following his veins was not something they could see, and wills himself to keep from allowing his tears to fall. It doesn’t work, each drop floating upward like air. 

“Do not cry for me,” they reply, a specter too genuine to be something made my his own mind, “for I never left you. You need be strong for those who can yet be saved. _Become what you must.”_

And they reach for him with hands he cannot see save for the shifting of the cosmos, holding him so gently it feels like home, and send him back to the waking world. G’raha stares at the crystal patterning his arms and breathes deeply. He stands before the window between worlds in the Ocular and steps forward into blinding light. Into a new ending.

**Author's Note:**

> i'd fight emet-selch in a denny's parking lot at 2 a.m. for one (1) corn chip
> 
> xiv tunglr | https://ffxivimagines.tumblr.com/  
main | https://kiriami-sama.tumblr.com/  
main | https://twitter.com/flamingacekiri


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